because i'm bored...

i will entertain u people with more pics.

*whine* the above happened when i was clearing up cupboards in time for our workstation reshuffle and audit. didn't even realise it until ages later. best part is they weren't even my cupboards!! if i had my way i would've chucked away all the docs i found but no... have to keep for audit. pfft.
i promise this will be the last pic of desserts... for now. haha. pasta cafe's cookies & cream and rocky road. hedonistic, i know. the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... in the wise words of oscar wilde.

unfortunately i have to take myself off now to yet another neighbourhood meeting. i swear i'm way too young to dedicate one fri nite each month to this cause. oh well... enbloc happening this year anyway. yay yay.

getting my just desserts

i just wanna make you guys drool. screw the diet, mate. don't waste your calories on bad food, try some of these...

newest items of craving, vilage crepes (strawberry and caramel banana)

repeat offender, menotti's soffiato

i would include the nydc ones as well but i can't remember if i put them up before. probably did. anyways, my desserts days are gonna be over soon. or rather, they're gonna get cut down very severely. very. very. severely. need to start training for my runs liao. :(

this means clocking at least 15km per wk for the first 2 wks, followed by 20km per wk for the next 3 wks and so on and so forth. slotting in at least one super long (ok fine, 10km is super long to me ok) run per fortnight. of cos can't forget abt the strength training... hmm. can't let my muscles atrophy from all that cardio. need some variety also like skating, cycling, etc so that i don't get bored or end up using the same muscles too much and neglect the rest. cakap macam paham sey. wahahaha.

i know the 2 topics don't go together very well, but u know what does?

secret recipe choc banana cake + vanilla ice- cream

cloudy evening + a quiet reservoir run

oh shit, forgot birthday dedication. imagine i put this up on 17 jan ok?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MILLS!! *muacks*

p.s. i want pics... from u or nas har?

we swallow, do you?

ok i'm really sleepy right now but will make a sorry attempt at an entry just becos i'm putting off refilling my kitty's litter box... it's not what u think, i'm waiting for the box and floor to dry lah. just washed the loo. again. and hakka's been eyeing my dad's jambul bird in the balcony and killing cockroaches. be afraid, be very afraid...

anyway. rohana, kecik and i went to watch forbidden chestnuts: portrait of a brokeback geisha. it was bloody hilarious! they were making parodies out of practically everything that was hot in 2006, entertainment- wise. good thing that i managed to catch quite a few of the local productions last year with rohana so we knew what was going on most of the time. i guess some people are clubbers, some are drinkers... me? i'd say i'm a player. wahaha. my favourites were the matrix spoof and the tokyo drift song at the end. what was not so hot was the fact that the actors didn't properly enunciate their words sometimes, so they came out rather garbled and unintelligible. say wha?

got a little pissed off when we were on our way home cos mum called and was like, where r u? y never tell? when u coming back? now those qns r fine, but then she started nagging again about how i've been going out too much, not telling them where i'm going, dad's not happy, etc. i'm thinking, why now? i never tell them where i go!! well sometimes i do but it's not a habit. unless i'm going back really late like say, after 12am, then i tell lah cos i don't want them to lock the door. for some reason my key doesn't work anymore. bah. so yeah, it really irritated me that i was expected to report strength all the bloody time. when did mum call? 10.30pm!! so early sia, i used to come back from the gym at 11pm for goodness sake and no one said anything! i'm an adult, dammit!

speaking of grown ups, another thing to whinge about. work. had my appraisal today cos it was postponed from yest. funny thing is, i think my senior and i rated ourselves very high individually compared to the other colleagues. lol. good thing is our super kinda agreed with most of the ratings we gave ourselves. for me the kpi was a prob tho, cos it was collective and not individual and i didn't state how i contributed. of cos i contributed to some more than others lah. understood mah! i'm not the only one responsible for bringing in the bacon. pfft. also we were supposed to mention ad hoc projects. i just looked at the super and was like, my entire job scope is ad hoc. she agreed. haha. they were also commending me on something that i thought i really sucked at- promptness. i was like, huh? i give express service? since when? usually i'll ignore stuff until i feel like getting back to them. wahaha. if this is express can u imagine how efficient i'd be if i actually acted on things immediately?? boggles the mind.

ok that was a small load off. i'm good now.

p.s. in case u didn't notice, allow me to draw your attention to the list at the right titled grey matter stimulants. it's a list of books i'm currently reading. i was gonna add in stuff that i wanna read also but then ah... dunno how to keep the 2 separated leh. ok fine, there's probably a really simple solution but i'm just way too lazy to entertain that thought right now. gimme yr views!

calligraffiti-ed/ nas-ed

so yesterday was a pretty packed sat. woke up pretty late (ok my idea of late is.. mebbe 10am) due to late night/ early morning wanderings on fri. simpang, arab st, back to simpang. haha. interesting.

went for a calligraffiti workshop at the national library (for details on why, please read rohana's entry) and was intrigued, amused and frustrated by the entire thing.

intrigued
it's art. what more can i say? was truly fascinated by the different ways in which you can write the arabic alphabet and the dedication and practice involved to produce such pieces. so little time, so many styles! the guys who were doing it were pretty darn good too.

amused
the crowd was made up of teenagers mostly. what amused me was that the little boy beside me was trying to chat me up. he was so completely mat sia. what amused rohana was the way i brushed him off. ha. ha. ha.
also when we were supposed to practice writing, rohana and i had brought our own materials so we politely declined the paper offered. unfortunately the organisers came to us one after another and insisted that we take a piece each. we had to oblige lah, tho i didn't even use mine. rohana cheated ah, her notebook had lines. haha.

frustrated
the presenters weren't that great. the slides weren't that great. they were going too fast and sad to say, they lacked the personality needed to engage the audience. i would give them points for effort but they really need to polish it up a lot. when they were descibing the different styles, it would have helped if they had the key features in point form and maybe performed a demo while going thru them or something. talk so much ah, coming from someone who loathes giving presentations... this just means that i'm in a better position to say what works and what doesn't. ya ya i'm critical, bite me.
miss ocd doesn't know how to hold a double pencil and doesn't cross lines. that's all i have to say.
we cabut-ed early cos being typically melayu, the workshop started about half an hour late and we only got a break at around 4.15pm. we were supposed to be done by 4.30pm. ape lagi, we beat a hasty exit. got things to do, places to go, people to meet! very busy women, can't waste our time on you. hahaha.

got home and started making my friend's birthday gift. put my new skills to the test and this is what happened:thank god her name is short.

was supposed to meet the birthday party (as in, party of people, not party party) at 7.30pm. i only left the house at 8pm. wahlau eh. good thing is i wasn't the last to arrive lah, haha. had pretty good pasta for dinner at marina. fantastic view of the city skyline from where we were seated.

then upon my recommendation, we adjourned to menotti for dessert. it's half price for desserts after 10pm daily, by the way. awesome awesome stuff. most of it was sold out by the time we ordered but we did manage to get our hands on a few different desserts. i didn't get my choc mousse! think it was called morbida on the menu. haha. managed to grab soffiatos (i have gone on about this sinful delight before, no?), strudels, canollis, profiteroles, etc. yum yum yum. the strudel was damn rich sia! not the run off the mill bakery type you know. real fruits, real nuts, no cream. just layers of great pastry and spiced filling accompanied by cinnamon vanilla ice cream.

was a well- spent saturday i reckon. and before i forget,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAS!!

even if she doesn't read my blog. haha.

good things come to those who wait

yesterday rohana sent me something that totally made my day. it was a list of movies to look out for in 2007. of course, being excited, i forwarded this to a few others. one of them emailed me back and said that a year long movie pass would be awesome. i told him that movie vouchers were available and that they are a good alternative i suppose, seeing how a year long pass doesn't exist (yet). so i thought, hey, the union offers them vouchers, so i went to check em out.

as luck would have it, i came across this offer that they had- union members get 5% off ipods plus some accessories at certain stores. so i thought, woo freaking hoo, i can go get my nano cos i was actually considering a shuffle, seeing how i'd only use it for working out anyway, but since there's a discount, why the hell not, cos the price difference ain't that much and u get a lot more bang for your buck. so that was me with my mind more or less made up, next paycheck, i'm getting me a nano. i mean, it's about time lah, had been eyeing an ipod since the first generation came out dunno how many years ago.

this would also mean that my pda would have to wait, cos it's one or the other, u know wat i mean. i'm still thinking about getting it cos the idea of carrying so many gadgets around does not appeal to me in the slightest.

i also feel kinda pressured into getting a new phone cos lately my family seems to have been on a phone buying spree. first my mum, then my sis, then my lil bro. but of cos, since when have i succumbed to pressure? real, imagined, or otherwise.

today, i got a cnet newsletter in my inbox. i love reading about all this geeky stuff cos it's just so damned fascinating. i decided not to read it at work cos the internet was super slow and it was pissing me off. so i left it alone.

when i got home today, i read the newsletter. oh. my. god. suddenly i was the most absurdly happy person in the entire world. suddenly, my dreary day didn't seem so bad after all. suddenly, i was thankful that i'm so fickle when it comes to big ticket items. i was (and still am) methaphorically squealing in delight. i would do it quite literally but i don't wanna scare the cat. i love innovation. i love creativity. i love technology. i freaking LOVE steve jobs. he is DA MAN. no one can argue with me on that one ok. don't you dare. behold, the source of my bliss and giddiness The Apple iPhone.

ipod + phone + pda. i knew this was rumoured and in the works but come on. to think i was just about to get an ipod. to think i was just about to get, heaven forbid, one of the new nokia phones. to think i was thinking of getting a pda, even though none of them had all the features i was looking for.

this is way too much for me. i need to go lie down. enjoy.

because the weather is brilliant

no, i did not say that in sarcasm. it's perfectly sunny outside, great for outdoor activities such as, i dunno, kayaking. which i really wanna go do but alas, i ain't got no kaki. so here i am, indoors, commenting on how lovely it is outside and in a while i'm gonna take a short snooze. but first...

hari raya haji 2006. posing with a sleeping marsya

do u realise how cool this photo would've been if a certain brother of mine had not ruined it by stepping in the background?? i had no idea he was there. if i did, he would've been in trouble. no, i did not check the photos after my sis took them, ok? probably should've...

my mama's 50th birthday on 3 jan 2007. celebrated at el-sheikh in pahang st. or penang rd. or wherever. great food and ambience there! cake is choc indulgence from secret recipe. oh so sinful stuff... mmm... she got a new handphone and wallet from us. yes, she was very happy with the gifts.

2006 in review. kind of.

ok so 2006 has drawn to a close and i must say, 2007 has started off with quite a bang, literally. well, several. i am of cos referring to fireworks and not anything that shaz's dirty dirty mind can come up with. i had 2 lists for 2006, one of which i posted up in my jan 2006 entry. shall not provide a link cos i'm that lazy. if u wanna see then go check back lor. wahaha. anyways, i had another 'things to do' list and i'm quite happy to announce that i did manage to cross some of the items off. they are:

big walk
kayaking/ canoeing
see thailand (phuket is a start ok)
get life insurance
get an investment portfolio
save $5k by end of the year

6 out of 14 ain't too bad right? 43% success rate... well, there is one more thing which i shall not mention here but if i were to add it, it would be a 50% success rate. haha. other stuff worth mentioning are:

my 7th piercing
running the stanchart 10km in 80 min
shed more excess weight
donated blood 3 times (good enough, even tho i was aiming for 4)
debt free since july
watched many many plays
flexed my creative muscles. well, kind of.

i haven't thought of a list or resolutions for 2007 yet lah, been too busy. only just managed to get an organiser today sommore. wanted to buy one but there was a pretty one free with some women's mag so i got that instead. it's so pretty. hehe. no calendar at a glance tho, so i guess will hv to rely on the planner i got from the office. speaking of office, i'm happy to announce that work will remain as low a priority this year as it was in 2006. ahaha. that is, unless i get to do something that i actually give a damn about. insyaallah i will find my calling. still unsure as to which direction i should go in. sighs.

hmm looks like my 'face of an angel with a body built for sin' goal for 2006 didn't exactly happen. i'm on my way there, i promise! my current weight is the lightest i've been since 2000 and i'm damned proud of that fact. still got a few more to go but it'll happen! i can feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes...

anyways, shall go fiddle around with my brain and 2007 diary. i loooooove fresh starts. i do it almost every month. haha.